Ferropolis (DE)

Production at the Hansa coking plant ceased on December 15th 1992. The once „forbidden city“ today invites visitors to explore ist theme trail on „Nature and Technology“. The technical equipment and buildings on this large-scale coking plant have remained mostly unchanged since they were constructed at the end of the 1920s. They offer authentic insights into the process and the working conditions on a coking plant. Visitors to this industrial monument are confronted with an exciting scenario of industrial history and newly evolving life, for we make no attempt to tame the rampant natural growth of the plants and trees which have sprung up amid the protected monuments, the rust and decay. The Hansa coking plant is one of the sites along the Industial Heritage Trail, a tourist project initiated by the state of North-Rhine-Westfalia and the Kommunalverband Ruhrgebiet or KVR (the Association of Local Authorities in the Ruhr District). The project links notable sites from 150 years of industrial history in the Ruhr District on a 400 kilometre-long circuit.

In 1997 the Foundation for the Preservation of Industrial Monuments and Historical Culture opened an office in the former administrative building of Hansa coking plant. Since 1998 the most important production area of the coking plant (dating back to 1928) has been listed as an historical monument, thus giving it legal protection. In cooperation with the city of Dortmund a master plan has been drawn up which aims to put the site and buildings to cultural and commercial use and intergrate the coking plant as a „giant walk-about sculpture“ into future landscaping developments in the northwest of the city. The plant will be opened up to the suburb of Huckarde and connected to the existing road network